by Howard Williamson
IMPROVED technology will enable the country's highest maypole to turn again after a gap of six years.
The traditional maypole ceremony is to take place in an east Leeds village after residents found a way to meet new health and safety regulations which had silenced the fun back in 1999.
Residents at Barwick-in-Elmet had traditionally lowered and then raised the 86ft wooden pole with ropes, ladders and plenty of human effort.
It was last done this way in 1999 since when health and safety regulations have been made tougher.
These caused problems for villagers in 2002 – when the triennial festival was last held – and so they held the celebrations without the maypole ceremony.
But now they say they can meet the regulations and will first take down and then raise up the pole again, using a tractor and crane and manual labour.
Nigel Trotter, a qualified engineer, was confident the village could meet regulations and called a public meeting to galvanise support. Now chairman of the maypole committee, he said: "Although the lifting techniques will be new to the ceremony, they are a logical development of the traditional techniques used over the past 50 years."
The maypole is traditionally lowered to ground at Easter and then raised again at Spring Bank Holiday (formerly Whitsuntide) which this year falls on Monday, May 30.
Popular features of maypole day will be retained. Children will again travel in procession from the village primary school to the ancient Hall Tower Field on farm carts, pulled by tractors provided by local farmers.
A maypole queen will be crowned before children dance around a smaller replica of the main pole.
A team of ladies is now hard at work making traditional garlands from fabric which will be hung two-thirds of the way up the pole. These will look like flower baskets and each petal will be made and stitched by hand.
Festival spokesman Ron Miller said: "They have to be weather proof because they will have to stay on the pole for three years until the next ceremony."
A 2005 calendar featuring photographs of previous maypole ceremonies and Barwick in Bloom floral displays was so popular it sold out in days.
Most of Britain's surviving maypoles – which in pagan times were fertility symbols – are in Yorkshire. They were banned in Oliver Cromwell's time but were allowed again with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.
Iron age earthworks can be found in Hall Tower Field where the maypole dancing takes place.
howard.williamson@ypn.co.uk